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The Allegations

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Transcription

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In 1940, 18-year old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathisers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past for ever. Ten years later, now a producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, on a different battleground, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat.

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Is Alice here? Did she make it? Is she safe? In the chaos, in the night, it was impossible to say which of the four had asked after Alice's welfare. Later, when everything got worse, each would insist it had been them. Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along the muddy track. Only four come out the other side.

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Belinda's words sound as well as they read

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Slough House is Jackson Lamb’s kingdom; a dumping ground for members of the intelligence service who’ve screwed up: left a secret file on a train, blown surveillance, or become drunkenly unreliable. They’re the service’s poor relations – the slow horses – and bitterest among them is River Cartwright, whose days are spent transcribing mobile phone conversations.

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When a troubled model falls to her death from a snow-covered Mayfair balcony, it is assumed that she has committed suicide. However, her brother has his doubts, and calls in private investigator Cormoran Strike to look into the case.Strike is a war veteran - wounded both physically and psychologically - and his life is in disarray. The case gives him a financial lifeline, but it comes at a personal cost: the more he delves into the young model's complex world, the darker things get - and the closer he gets to terrible danger...

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The last time Tess de Vere saw William Benson, she was a law student on work experience. He was a 21-year-old, led from the dock of the Old Bailey to begin a life sentence for murder. He'd said he was innocent. She'd believed him. Sixteen years later Tess overhears a couple of hacks mocking a newcomer to the London Bar, a no-hoper with a murder conviction, running his own show from an old fishmonger's in Spitalfields.

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Erin is a documentary filmmaker on the brink of a professional breakthrough, Mark a handsome investment banker with a bright future. They seem to have it all - until Mark loses his job and cracks start to appear in their perfect life. But they’re determined to make it work. They book their dream honeymoon and trust that things will work out - after all, they have each other. Could the life of your dreams turn out to be a nightmare?

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On a freezing morning four drunken students stumble upon the body of a woman in the snow. Rosie has been raped, stabbed and left for dead in a cemetery. The only suspects are the four young men now stained with her blood. Twenty-five years later the police mount a cold-case review of Rosie’s unsolved murder, and the four are still suspects. But when two of them die in suspicious circumstances, it seems that someone is pursuing their own brand of justice....

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Absorbing story with good characters

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4 3 2 1

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4 out of 5 stars
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On March 3, 1947, in the maternity ward of Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the one and only child of Rose and Stanley Ferguson, is born. From that single beginning, Ferguson's life will take four simultaneous and independent fictional paths. Four Fergusons made of the same genetic material, four boys who are the same boy, will go on to lead four parallel and entirely different lives. Family fortunes diverge. Loves and friendships and intellectual passions contrast.

3 out of 5 stars

I honestly tried to get through this.

By
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Summary

On the morning after he has celebrated his 60th birthday at a celebrity-filled party, Ned Marriott is in bed with his partner, Emma, when there's a knock on the door. Detectives from the London police force's Operation Millpond have come to arrest him over an allegation of sexual assault.

Ned is one of the country's best-known historians - teaching at a leading university, advising governments and making top-rating TV documentaries - but this historic claim from someone the cops insist on calling 'the victim' threatens him with personal and professional ruin and potential imprisonment.

Professor Marriott would normally turn for support to Tom Pimm, his closest friend at the university, but Tom has just been informed that a secret investigation has raised anonymous complaints which may end Dr Pimm's career. Swinging between fear, bewilderment and anger, Ned and Tom must try to defend themselves against the allegations and hope that no others are made. The two men's families and friends are forced to question what they know and think. Can the complainants, detectives, HR teams, journalists and tweeters who are driving the stories all be seeing smoke that has no fire behind it?

By turns shocking and comic, reportorial and thoughtful, The Allegations startlingly and heartbreakingly captures a contemporary culture in which allegations are easily made and reputations casually destroyed. Asking listeners to decide who they believe, it explores a modern nightmare that could happen, in some way, to anyone whose view of personal history may differ from someone else's.

An EXCELLENT listen

For fans of David Lodge, Mark Lawson's The Allegations is poignant because of the author's recent life and shameful treatment by the BBC. The theme of what it means to be a victim is closely looked at with great skill and insight; all too relevant in today's headlines. The characters are fascinating and very well drawn with great humour.

The BBC's loss (and therefore that of the listeners) is the gain of the literary audience, though the crossover is immense. Let's hope Lawson wastes no time beginning the next novel in what will be, I hope, the beginning of a prolific and much appreciated writing career. Short of Sky Arts and a Podcast series, this must, I hope, be a certainty.

What fools the BBC are.

A brilliant listen to which you will return again and again. Already favourite.

Fantastic novel!

Mark Lawson, how great to know this book - erudite, funny and moving, with a wonderfully sensitive reading by Peter Kenny. It is sad that the theme of Allegations (now in August 2018) is timely. Perhaps it always will be, at least somewhere in the world.I have loved all the hours I have spent with you.

Today's Tyranny. Listen!

Peter Kenny is a pleasing narrator who contrasts narrative and dialogue well and effectively communicates Mark Lawson’s individual style. Characters are clearly differentiated and created credibly with the changing moods captured.

This novel is a powerful indictment of the hysterical madness into which our society has descended. Whilst engaging in a profoundly serious contemporary topic, it is humorous and witty in presenting a vivid picture of a culture which now accepts allegations as fact without any need for evidence; a society which portrays the accuser as “victim”, failing to see that the real victim is the person who has been wrongly accused; a society in which the potential malevolence of social media can destroy lives in a second; a society in which trust in the integrity of the police has vanished; in which the voices of authority actively encourage the unscrupulous opportunistic, the malicious and the cynical to make allegations – allegations which cannot possibly be substantiated decades after the supposed crime. And the incredibly unjust shift of opinion which permits punishment for behaviour not remotely considered as ‘criminal’ when it took place thirty or more years ago. I was completely caught up in Ned’s suffering and the appallingly stupid, dangerous situation into which our country has plunged in the wake of Jimmy Saville. Very well done, Mark. “The Allegations” is a wake-up call to be shouted from the rooftops and your name and background provide a suitably respected platform. A moving, disturbing, thought provoking book.

Beautifully written, exceptional narration.

This is an intellectually challenging story of accusations and the struggles they engender. It is written in an orginal style and to a very high standard. I didn't really engage with any of the characters, but was, nevertheless transported along by the interesting directions taken by the story. It loses one star for me, as I found it rather long winded in places.

The narration here is exceptionally good, with Kenny showing a remarkable ability to distinguish between story narrative and character dialogue. Each character is truly brought to life. I will look out for this accomplished narrator in the future.

Thought-provoking!

Any additional comments?

A really intelligent story which gives an insight into the crazy times we live in. Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, the writing is very witty indeed. I really felt for the two main characters involved, Ned and Tom. Overall, thoroughly worth listening to!

Witty, Brilliant Narration, Disturbing

Witty and "laugh out loud" in places with an excellent narration by Peter Kenny (one of my favorite narrators), this tale of current, politically correct accountability and sexual conduct has no fairy tale ending. Having been drawn in to outrage over the nature of the allegations you are left reflecting on the conduct that has led to them being made.

Good but glad when I got to end

I really like this author but this definitely not his best work. That's entirely subjective of course; don't get put off if you're thinking about it. It felt as though the author was trying to make a grand point about modern witch hunts but in the end it felt too trivial and I'm not sure he succeeded. Could not get that worried about fate of rather bland characters. Felt the ending was rather silly. But not bad. Well enough narrated but the narrator descended into putting on voice for characters; his Ulster voice rather wide of mark, shall we say...